Sri Chinmoy half marathon - Centennial Park, 13 June 2010

Race Report:
On the race morning, Tom was giving excuses for not wearing budgy smugglers. "It's seven degrees Gi!," he said. As we know that Tom was sick last week, and still decided to run 7km anyway, we can let him get away with this excuse this time. I think the weather couldn't have been better. When it is a bit cold, the athletes don't feel too thirsty in a half marathon distance race. There were a few people running in HTC gear and many familiar faces from different triathlon clubs. I was hoping for a PB over my road race time at Sydney half marathon four weeks ago, but wasn't sure I would manage to get a PB after I looked at the course. It was a hilly cross country course through the Centennial Park. Running on grass and sand is relatively slower than road running as grass/sand absorbs a bit of force you apply on the ground.

The race started 5min late. There was a minute of silence and then they announced "Runners Go!" I was the first off the block, and led the palaton for about 300m. Then I realised I don't know the course and not sure should I follow this fence or go straight. So, I eased up a bit and let the fast runners lead. By 1.5km, I was 8th. Since then I kept dropping places. It is a scenic course around the duck ponds, hills and dense trees. My HR for the first 7km was over 180bpm. I felt I was going too fast. So I floated for the next 7km and picked up the pace in the last 7km to finish it off in 1h47min. It was still a PB of 8 min over the Sydney half marathon 4 weeks ago, and I was happy with that. Sri Chinmoy races are very well organised with water station every 2km. They cost 1/4th of the Sydney half marathon price, and that includes bananas, oranges and pancakes at the end of the race. Tom would race just for the pancakes. He ate four pancakes! The next PB... err... the next SC half marathon is at Dolls Point on 11th July. See you there!